Emmert came to the NCAA job in 2010 after turns as president of the University of Washington and chancellor at Louisiana State University. His background was in academia, but he was familiar with athletics, having lured Nick Saban to Baton Rouge in 1999. This was seen as an advantage as the NCAA worked to quash academic scandals and shore up graduation rates.
Many described Emmert as brilliant, but that same quality may have also turned college administrators against him. They say that conversations with the president left them with the impression that he felt he was the smartest person in the room and knew better than them in dealing with the reality of college sports on the ground.
This only magnified as the NCAA became mired in costly litigation—most notably the landmark case brought by former UCLA basketball player Ed O’Bannon that ultimately cracked the door open for college athletes to gain ownership of their name, image and likeness rights years later.
Although the NCAA could have issued national guidelines on name, image and likeness in the spring of 2021, Emmert waited for a ruling on the Alston case. In June 2021, the Supreme Court handed the NCAA a resounding 9-0 loss. The opinion backed the NCAA into a corner with one suboptimal way out: beg Congress to intervene on their behalf.
“I don’t know of an industry, I don’t know of a corporation, I don’t know of a nonprofit anywhere who says ‘Let’s just turn it over to Congress to regulate us,’” said Arne Duncan, co-chair of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, an advocacy group that aims to reform inequities in college sports, and former U.S. Secretary of Education. “Congress only steps in when they see dysfunction or a lack of leadership.”
Several bills related to athletes rights have been introduced in Congress, but none have gained meaningful momentum in the last 10 months as politicians navigated Covid-19 surges, economic uncertainty and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Finally in New Orleans, Emmert publicly acknowledged that he might be part of the NCAA’s problem.
NCAA President Mark Emmert’s Departure Was Years in the Making
College sports administrators say poor communication, decreasing transparency and indecisive leadership from the NCAA under Emmert created irreparable fissures.
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